Starling, the story of the Lost
by Inkstained Narrations
Summary: When a child from the 1900's stumbles into the Tourist Office, the team is at a loss; even more so when the girl claims to have fallen from a different dimension. Contains light slash, OC character and family love! No COE or character death refs! yay!
1. Chapter 1

Alright people! This is the first chapter of Starling. I know it's short, but in the future (if there is one) I hope to make the chapters longer. This is just to draw you in a bit. This is my first fanfic ever posted, but not the first ever written. Hopefully, people love it and will want more! I will not continue without reviews; so if you like it MAKE YOUR OPINION KNOWN! Or if you think it's crap and I need some mental attention TELL ME THAT TOO! I love hearing whatever you have to say, dears! :D

Now for some disclaimers: I, unfortunately, do not own the show Torchwood. OR the idea of Torchwood. If I did, there would not be any of this Ianto dies nonsense. The only thing I can say is mine is the little girl. SHE'S MINE!

Enjoy!

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Chapter one

As far as Jack could tell, the creature that had stumbled into the tourist office was somewhat human. Were it not for her shocking white hair and eyes the color of freshly spilled blood. The creature looked like a porcelain doll in the shape of a child. She had skin as white as snow, and seemingly as delicate as thin glass. Her hair was strait but mussed, and her eyes were innocently wide. Her small frame was just as delicate as her skin. Her clothes were rugged and worn by travel.

The female was covered in bruises, and shivering so hard she was nearly convulsing. Her disturbing eyes frantically flicked around her and her rouge lips never stopped moving; mouthing words but never speaking them.

Since stumbling into the Tourist office, she had not responded to Ianto at all, or moved from her curled position behind the counter. She just curled her legs close to her body in a fetal position and rocked.

Gwen had come up not long after Ianto had come down to tell Jack of the intruder. She now stood with her arms crossed, glaring at Jack.

"Can I at least go talk to her?" Gwen demanded, "She's obviously in shock, Jack. She practically hysterical!" She waved in the child's direction.

"I don't know if it's faking or not." Jack replied sternly, "It may be armed and dangerous. It knew where to find-"

"Oh bullshit!" Gwen cut Jack off, brown eyes glinting, "_She_ obviouslycame in here on accident! What else would you do if your panicked? God, Jack! Give her a chance!"

Jack looked to the creature, who's eyes were wildly flickering around, and silent mumbles gaining some sound.

"Fine. Just don't get too close." He relented, voice reluctant. Gwen nodded and gave him a grateful gap-toothed smile.

She looked back to the child, and made a slow approach. The movement drew the girl's spastic eyes to the taller woman. The blood red eyes locked on her form, and she froze.

Gwen came a little closer and said gently, "Hello, my name is Gwen."

The girl made no response.

"Can you understand me?" Gwen asked, slower and more clearly.

The girl's head moved ever so slightly in a nod. She didn't blink.

"Do you know where you are?" Gwen asked.

The girl's frame convulsed in a shiver and she shook her head manically.

"Your in Cardiff, Whales. Do you know where that is?" Jack spoke up, his tone a little gruff, but gentler. The girl shook her head again.

"Your in the United Kingdom." Gwen explained, "We're close to England." The girls eyes, who Jack had been under the impression could not go any wider; went the size of saucers.

"What?" Came the reply. The voice was high strung sounding, and had a permanently rough edge to it. The accent was unmistakably an old time New Yorker's drawl. Very old time. Before the Empire State Building even. Jack remembered how that accent sounded. He had even had it himself for a few years.

"How did I get here?" The girl asked frantically, eyes desperate.

"We think you fell through a Rift in space and time, and ended up here; in Cardiff." Jack answered, meeting the girl's eyes.

"What year is it?" She asked, quietly now.

"It's 2010, sweetheart." Gwen said gently, remembering the last time people were displaced from their times. The girl's breath shuddered to a halt, and if it was possible, her eyes went even wider.

Her breath left her in a hysterical giggle, then another. Soon she was laughing manically, pale red tears falling down her bruised and dirt smeared cheeks onto her equally dirty clothes. Her small hands reached up and latched onto her hair, pulling hard. Giggles turned to wailing banshee screams. Sobs tore from her already harsh throat.

Gwen made to grab her hands and recoiled when an unnerving cold met her fingers instead of warmth. The girl's skin felt like the skin of the dead.

In her hesitation, Jack had swooped in and picked up the child; and was now running with her into the Hub.

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Reviews make peace on earth and feed hungry authors! So do the right thing and press that little button under this note! ...Please?

Loves and Hugs,

Inkstained Narrations


	2. Chapter 2

Starling

Chapter two

"OWEN! OWEN!" Jack yelled over the girls wailing, running for the med bay,"THIS GIRL NEEDS SEDATIVES!"

Owen looked up from his currant project in alarm. Seeing the state of the girl now pounding on Jack, he hurriedly pushed his project away and pulled out an extra table from seemingly nowhere. Within moments he had the sedatives syringe. Jack ran down the stairs and as gently as possible set the girl on the table.

The following minutes were a battle of flailing limbs and harsh screams of "GET AWAY!" and "We're not going to hurt you!" The needle eventually hit skin and the sedative was injected. It took a long minute for the girls failing to weaken and her eyes to slide shut in sleep. Both men fell away as the fight was ended. Owen now had a split lip and Jack could feel a bruise forming on his cheek. Both had had the wind knocked out of them.

"What in the hell was that?" Owen panted, bracing his arms against his knees. He glared sideways at Jack, who was resting against the wall.

"That was the girl that wouldn't leave the tourist office." Ianto answered from above them. Owen turned his glare towards their audience. Tosh scampered away with a worried look backward, and Gwen ignored everyone. She was worried about their impromptu guest.

Both men in the med bay gave long suffering sighs and straitened up. Jack looked over the girl's now calm form. The girl was a traveler. He could tell that by her clothing. Her hair may have once been cut in the stylish bob of her time frame, but there was hardly any telling now. There was something . . . off about her. He couldn't put his finger on what it was just yet. But there was definitely something off.

"From what I can tell she's not all human. Her heartbeat is too slow. One beat every two minutes." Owen informed them, tapping at his computer, "That's causing the temperature in her body to be so low. Besides that..." The medic trailed off, shrugging, "She's got all the normal human body parts. No extra limbs, organs or weird skin conditions besides pigment problems. Now would you all get out?"

During Owen's little speech, Gwen and Ianto had migrated down the stairs of the med bay. Ianto hovered close to where Jack was standing and Gwen was standing beside the table. She patted the girl's hair down gently and made a move to go. Ianto and Jack were already halfway up the stairs.

"Everyone to the conference room!" Jack called. Tosh jumped up, concern written all over her face, and Owen growled loudly from the med bay. Ianto walked close at his side.

"Do you think she's really human?" Ianto asked quietly. Jack shrugged.

"I can't tell beyond what information we have. There are tons of aliens with slow pulses, and there are plenty more with no pulses whatsoever. But generally they don't have the technology or brain power to turn themselves into humans." Jack whispered back, "And they definitely wouldn't have that accent if there are creatures who can shift. That's the kind of accent you have to grow up with."

Ianto looked at him skeptically, but nodded. The team spread out in the conference room, engrossed in their own thoughts. It was Gwen who broke the silence.

"What are we going to do?" She asked, looking expectantly at Jack. The immortal looked down at his shoes, arms crossed.

"I'm not sure. I can't tell if she fell out of her time, or if she fell from her planet." Jack shrugged, rubbing his face tiredly. He wondered in a detached part of his mind if he had an excuse to say 'I'm to old for this' yet.

"She acted like she had fallen out of her time. She went into that fit when she found that it was 2010." Gwen argued. Ianto nodded in agreement.

"I think that if we ask she would tell us. Beyond that fit, she wasn't hostile." Tosh suggested, still sending glances out towards the main hub.

"What are you looking back there for?" Owen demanded, looking irritated and not a little like he had been in a bar fight. A welt was beginning to form on the back of his head, and it was aching.

Tosh fiddled with the edge of her shirt and said, "I'm just worried. She's a little kid." Gwen patted her shoulder sympathetically.

"Where am I?" A scream roughened voice asked. All eyes snapped up to the doorway. The girl hovered at the thresh hold, looking scared and uncertain. Her small hands picked reflexively at her left arm, and her eyes flickered between all of the Torchwood team, "Who are you?"

Everybody looked expectantly at Jack, who answered, "This is Torchwood. My name is Captain Jack Harkness. This is my Team." He gestured to the rest of them.

The girl looked confused, "How did I get to Torchwood? Wasn't I in Whales before you sedated me?" She was ignoring Jack, and looking at Gwen. Gwen was the one who had introduced herself first. Gwen hadn't restrained her into a fake sleep.

"Torchwood is under Cardiff. We're underground." Gwen explained. The girl nodded, looking around, "What's your name?"

"I won't tell you mine if you don't tell me yours." The girl responded almost absently. Something had caught her eye and she was drifting away.

"My name is Toshiko. It's a pleasure to meet you, young lady." Tosh greeted quickly, not wanting to loose the girl's interest.

"My name is Ianto Jones. It's nice to meet you." Ianto followed.

"Owen." Was all the irritable doctor would say.

The pale girl now had her full attention on the team. "My name is Starling." She said sweetly, smiling with pearly but crooked teeth.


	3. Chapter 3

Hey people! I've decided to be merciful and keep updating with or without reviews; because this story is eating me alive! I would like to thank Specialfracine from the bottom of my heart for reviewing the whole wopping two chapters! (yay you!)

I won't be updating anytime in the next few days, so be warned. I may or may not update when I get back from Washington, but it's iffy. School has a way of throwing kinks in stories. I know for sure that I will be updating in two weeks. That is guaranteed.

Also, I realized I didn't give this story a time set, so I'm going to set the time... about a little after Cyberwoman. So, while there is no mention of the main cast dieing besides Suzie, this story will stay on track with the episodes. Are we all clear? Good! On with the story!

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Starling

Chapter three

"Starling? Like the bird?" Gwen asked sweetly. The girl nodded.

"I like birds." She informed them happily, "They can fly. And they make music. They're very comforting." Her gaze was being drawn away again, towards something in the main hub.

"Starling? What are you looking for?" Gwen tried to call her attention back, but Starling was already wandering off. Her heavy boots clunked loudly across the tiles. There was a quick glance between everyone on the team before they all made for the door.

Starling now stood in front of Tosh's work station, totally engrossed with the standard Torchwood screen saver. She was open mouthed with awe as the 'T' turned slowly across the screen. Her thin fingers were hovering in front of the screen, like she wanted to touch it, but was afraid to break it. Tosh rushed forward through her team to her work station.

"What's this?" Starling asked loudly, then started when Tosh spoke from beside her.

"This is a computer." Tosh explained. Starling let her fingers fall to her side. She looked back to the Asian woman with curious eyes.

"What are they used for?" Starling whispered in awe.

"They're used to store information and that kind of thing." Tosh floundered for an explanation. She didn't really know how to explain a computer. She was so used to having everyone understand what the machines were used for. Starling's expression was still awestruck when she looked back to the screen though, so Tosh allowed herself a moment of pride in her explanation skills.

Starling's attention was again diverted as Jack passed into his office. She moved to follow, and Tosh let her. The small girl followed the captain with an absent way about her. She was looking with avid interest at her surroundings. Taking in the strangeness of them. The flashing lights and moving screens were amazing to her. Even in her extensive travels she had never seen anything quite like it.

Jack glanced behind him, assessing Starling's reactions to the Hub.

He thought they were the same as anybody's from the 1900's. While he was still skeptical about her being all human, he was willing to bet that she really was from an earlier time. The accent and reactions were too close to not be. He wondered if she was possibly a visitor to earth that got stuck in the early 1900's. Perhaps a child of the visitor that fell through the rift?

Jack shrugged mentally and sat at his desk, well aware that his shadow was now standing behind him.

"You have lots of strange machines here." Starling informed him, "Toshiko said the flat box things are computers. She had four of them on her desk. Why does she need so many?" Jack looked up, into the child's intelligent eyes.

"Tosh needs all of the computers to make sure that everything is safe. She monitors the Rift to make sure nothing falls out without us knowing." Jack explained. Starling's eyes looked back out to the generator in the center of the Hub.

"You said I fell out of a rift in space and time." She said slowly, "But what I remember is I walked into a Gap."

"A Gap?" Jack's voice was pleasantly skeptical, but still earned him a red eyed glare.

"Yes. A Gap of the In Between. They are like a portal of sorts. I'm not insane." Starling's tone was defensive, insulted, "I was trying to get to…" She trailed off, her face scrunching cutely. She scrambled through her memory. "Oh yes. I was trying to get to The City of Mirror."

Jack just stared. Gap of the In Between? What in the world was a Gap of the In Between? That definitely wasn't human. And the City of Mirror? That wasn't in America for sure.

"Stop looking at me like that! I'm_ trying_ to tell you where I came from! If you keep looking at me like I'm missing my marbles; I'll leave and you'll never know." As Starling said this, she took the tone of one used to giving orders and threats. Her chin tilted regally, and her eyes narrowed slightly. Her previously doll-like innocence was suddenly turned into a sharp eyed angry commander.

Jack was a little worried when he realized that he was a little scared of that expression.

"Fine. Calm down. So where are you from?" Jack asked pleasantly. Starling's angry commander look had yet to fade away. When she spoke, there was a note of cold anger.

"New York. But I ran away with the Circus." There was a note of sarcasm.

"The circus huh? How did that go for you?" Jack asked, amused.

"Surprisingly well." Starling's eyes wandered over the room. She drifted to the coat rack and stroked Jack's RAF coat, "This is a nice coat." She said happily, pulling it down and wrapping it around her shoulders. The vast majority of the thick fabric was pooling around her feet.

Ianto came through the door, a tray of coffee balanced on his palm. He threw a confused glance at the mass of RAF coat beside the door and set the Jack's coffee in front of him.

"What are you doing Starling?" The Welshman asked in a way that made it obvious that he worked with children often.

Starling's pale face appeared from the folds of the coat, "This is a nice coat, isn't it? It's blue. I like it. Can I have it?"

"Sorry, kiddo. No can do. Why don't you go talk to Gwen for a little while, hmm?" Ianto chuckled. Starling's eyes lit up.

"Sure!" With that, the bipolar child dropped the coat and pranced out of Jack's office. Ianto set the trey down and bent to pick up the coat.

"Since when were you good with kids?" Jack cried incredulously.

"I baby sit for my sister." Ianto shrugged, "Did you learn anything? Or did she just go through your office?"

Jack only now noticed that throughout their bizarre conversation, Starling had been going through anything that wasn't locked or in the desk itself. The surface of his desk was totally messed up, with papers flung madly all over it; and all his various knickknacks were overturned and put in the wrong places. The filing cabinets were open and showed signs of being gone through.

"You know, I'm not sure. I think she got more out of this than I did." Jack let his head fall into his palms in weary defeat.

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Alrighty loves, The usual thing is recomended here! Review to feed authors!

Loves and Hugs


	4. Chapter 4

Hello again, lovely people!

I know I said that I would be continuing without reveiws, I would like to point out that I still want them! Thank you to Specialfrancine for reviewing every time.

AN IMPORTANT NOTE IS HERE! LOOK AT IT AND MAKE SURE THERE ARE NO MISUNDERSTANDINGS!

Originally this story was one of my more light hearted fics; focusing on Starling regaining memories and gaining family relationships. But of course, Starling took the story and tore it up into little bits. She told me it was boring and made me write THIS mess.

So, this story is about to take a more interesting course, one with a more mature mind set. I hope everyone's okay with that.

Also, if you see anything that's like; 'Dear god what is this madwoman writing?' pleasepleaseplease tell me! I need to know that I'm not going overboard. I have no editor, so this is all my undiluted writing. If it's too much TELL ME. I don't want to lose my silent stalkers and other various peoples away!

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Starling

Chapter four

Starling had been planning on visiting Gwen, she really had. She liked the woman's accent. It was easy to listen to, like Ianto's was. But there was so much _more _to look at here. There were all these wires and computers and lights and strange noises and plants and ohmygod that's a lot of pictures and rooms and oh dear lord it was so distracting. She couldn't possibly be expected to keep away from all of it, could she?

At least that's what she told herself as she wandered down the grill steps of the hub. There was too much to look at here. And it was in the future. That in and of itself made it all that much more interesting. This was much better than the world she had been born in. By far, it was better.

Starling had covered the heavy leather of her boots with the snow walking furs she had in her hidden pocket, so that her steps were silent. She had noticed that the scales on the soles of her shoes were loud on the metal and concrete floors. If she was going to wander, she was going to do it unhindered by these strange future people. She had the concerned that Captain Jack Harkness would follow her.

Silent as shadow, Starling ghosted through the strange space. Above her was a huge dome ceiling, which had a giant nest of some sort on it. There may or may not have been movement in the shadows of the cave-like nest; so she remained wary of it. Reflections of water from somewhere were mesmerizing, and she spent a long minute staring. The huge thing in the center of the underground base was bizarre in her eyes.

She thought that it had a dangerous aura about it, and had no right to be near any living thing. But here these idiots had it right front and center. Were the future humans really so oblivious? Starling shuddered to think that she would possibly be living in this time frame. She would be the first to say that yes, there were fantastical things littering the whole place; she would also be the loudest to say that it was a dangerous distraction. With such a threat so demurely sitting in their base, they should be watching it like hawks.

Heaving a mostly silent sigh, she went to examine the enormous door. It had a cage around it, which she found strange for a door. If something happened and one got locked out, how were they supposed to get out? And the door itself was a metal hunk; how was one supposed to open such a door at all? What if there was a fire? So much electricity in one place was a death trap. There would be a fire or something. _Then_ what would these idiots do?

Deciding that this whole idea was a big mess, and she was not going to deal with it, she drifted again.

Starling gravitated to the med-bay. She may have woken there after the forced sleep; but there had been no thoughts to look then. She had wanted to know why she was there. She had wanted to know who those strange people were, and she sure as hell wanted to know how she had fallen from a Gap into this place.

Starling scowled. This whole mess was upsetting. She wanted to go back. She had things to finish, battles to fight, people and places to find. There was no time for this nonsense. None at all.

They were going to worry about her. They were going to be looking, panicking. How could she keep them all from turning on each other from this place? If they were left alone too long, there would be blood. How was she going to be saved if they were all fighting? What if they got caught? She hadn't appointed a leader!

No.

Stop it.

They weren't going to fall apart.

Dale could hold them. Or at least he could hold Jade. And if he held down Jade, he had the rest of them.

Calm down Starling.

Shaking her head to dispel the thoughts plaguing her, she pulled up her hood and blended into the thin shadows. She had learned lots of useful tricks like that while traveling.

The short tempered man - Owen - was tapping out something on a tray filled with little boxes. The little boxes had letters and numbers on them.

It looked suspiciously like a type writer, except the whole rest of it was missing. What good was typing with just the keys if there was no paper? Or ink for that matter? What the hell was wrong with these people?

He was staring at the screen, and Starling noticed that letters were appearing on it, moving quickly to form words seemingly by magic. She carefully watched the correlation between his quick moving fingers over the keys and the words on the screen.

Oh. The tray was somehow connected to the computer.

Another distraction.

Pushing that to simmer with all the other information she had gleaned from raiding Captain Jack Harness's office; Starling looked over the small room.

_Those knives are so nice. Don't you think so honey?_ Whispered her mind. Starling clenched her jaw. She had felt the cracks in her mind open when she fell, and had curled up behind the desk of a tourist office in hopes that this part of her wouldn't escape. But she had been distracted. This place was so distracting. _I think we should try them out. There's such a lovely guinea pig right there. He would bleed so nice._

_ I don't want you. Go away._ Starling desperately willed the voice away, but it was making her palms tingle. Her tongue remembered the taste of blood.

_You know you waaaaaaaaaaant tooooooo love. It's boiling in your blood right now isn't it. I can tell. _The voice cooed. Starling turned abruptly and walked as quickly away from the tempting knives and the live flesh of the future people. _DON'T YOU DARE WALK AWAY! _ It screamed now in outrage. Starling stopped in her tracks, her whole body frozen in torn wills.

The mental voice cooed at her invitingly.

Her sanity tugged at her, reminding her that these people had been kind to her.

_There is no such thing as kind remember? Nobody treats you kind. _

There the mental barrier went up.

It flew up, thick and strong. It cut off the voice. It cut off the harm of the memories the voice brought with it. It cut off the pain.

Starling blinked, her eyes suddenly wide and innocent. Pulling her hood down, she skipped away to sit herself down in Gwen's unsuspecting lap.

And nobody was the wiser that they had come close to being victims of a serial killer.

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Soooooooooooooo... yeah

If there are any questions or flames for going insane, please review and tell me? Insanity needs reviews to! It gets lonely in that padded cell and eats the walls. Nobody wants that.

Loves and Hugs,

Inkstained Narrations.


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